Engine Removal...Best Method

Ok guys, I finally got the break I was looking for. I am a 19 year old technician at a local shop. Ive been there for a year now and my boss is finally going to test my ability and let me try to swap a motor on my own. I have a 10 hour shift on saturday and I am hoping to have it in, out, and running. In the past I have helped our master tech, so I know of the basis of engine pulling but I wanted to ask some of you a bit more wise a few questions.

Truck I am swapping is a 2001 Ram 1500, 2wd, auto trans. truck DOES have AC. Is there anything really that tricky about pulling the motors out of these second gens? I have never been around when one has been done in one of these trucks. any good trucks or tips you could provide me, or any helpful advice? my main question is, is it easier on these trucks to pull the engine and trans out together, or just pull the engine and leave the trans in the truck?

I am a bit nervous and want to impress my boss as well as beat the flat rate for it (about 13 hours), so any advice helps. I am very ambitious about my career as an automotive tech and I hope this goes smoothly. I cant see it taking me 13 hours to pull it swap over the parts and get her back in but thats why I want to check with you guys! Any information is much appreciated. Thank you very much in advance.

Thank you for the advice so far guys. It doesnt look like to bad of a job. I have not personally seen this truck, but I know the v6s arent very tight. Yes, I do have access to a cherry picker, and the truck will be on a lift so I can raise it up to get the bellhousing/torque converter bolts out of it. You dont need to move the condenser or trans cooler out of the way do you? I was going to pull the rad to give a bit more room but I was wondering if I had to move anything else. Alldata says to pull the intake but I dont see why you would have to pull the intake....

My only fear is if this motor is locked up. The last one I did in a sienna van the engine was locked up and I had to loosen up all the mains and rock the crank back and forth until I could get it to spin freely. SO hopefully it all goes smooth if I can do this on saturday in and out and running I am sure to get a pat on the back and a nice bonus!

How about taking a bunch of pics along the way to document how to do it. Post up a engine removal how-to. Thats would be very beneficial to this site.

You know, that is a great idea. All I have is my iPhone, but I think my iPhone probably takes pictures well enough to serve the purpose. Maybe I will take a bunch of short videos, and edit them all together and post it on youtube or some other video site so people can watch like a step by step.

Do you have a leveler for the cherry picker? Granted, pulling a V6 will be much easier than pulling a V8, but an engine leveler will make the job more bearable.

Go ahead and remove the radiator "just in case", but the condenser and transmission cooler can stay.

No, unfortunately we do not have a leveler....one of the other techs disappeared with it. This summer the master tech I I replaced 5 engines, and did it without a leveler...we did an engine in a ford truck that was a bear. So I am hoping the v6 with all the room in the bay will be easy enough to pull without a leveler or swivel chain